Archive for June, 2008
13 items.
I didn’t get a chance to see Sex and The City: The Movie this weekend and I’m actually kind of bummed.
I know, I know. I’m turning in my membership card to the He-Man Women Hatin’ Club later this afternoon.
It was just one of those things we couldn’t work out this weekend. Cami was a little under the weather and we were just running in too many directions at once.
TO MY CREDIT… I asked Cami at least three time over the weekend if she still wanted to see the movie. I offered suggestions to what we could do with Henry. Take him to her Mom’s house, put him to bed and have her sister babysit, leave Truman to watch over him…
Fact of the matter was, she just wasn’t feeling well and went to bed about 8:00 PM on both Saturday and Sunday. Drag.
People are talking about the box office SaTC pulled down over the weekend. Almost $56 million, making it the largest opening for a R-rated comedy ever. I would think this would ensure a sequel. Especially considering the television show went off the air over four years ago. It’s really quite impressive.
My sister-in-law tried to see the movie on Friday and told us that the first three showings were sold out. When they finally got tickets, she talked about all of the women that went to the theater “in costume” – dressed to the nines in their fanciest clothes and shoes. Women who had their hair done up like it was a black-tie ball for the movie.
I turned to Cami and said “See! Girls will geek out for the right stuff if prompted!”
My sister-in-law also told us that she saw only one or two guys in a sold out theater and that was the inspiration for this comic.
At any rate, with Cami all riled up with her sister’s positive feedback, I think we’re in position to see Sex and The City sometime tomorrow evening. I’ll be sure to let you know what I think on Wednesday.
If you have opinions about Sex and The City: The Movie, be sure to tune in to The Triple Feature podcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST at TalkShoe.com. I know Joe saw the movie, although Gordon flat-out refused. No worries. Gordon said he would check out The Strangers instead.
As for me? Well, I watched an advanced copy of the new Futurama straight-to-DVD movie – The Beast With A Billion Backs. So if you’re looking for some head’s up on that, tune in for the scoop! I might try to post a full review here on the site tomorrow. So be on the lookout for that.
Sorry for the delay with the blog post this morning. There was something I accidentally uploaded to the comic images folder on the server that made the archive system go ker-flooey! Man, I can’t wait to make the switch to WordPress…
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Jun03
DVD REVIEW: FUTURAMA – THE BEAST WITH A BILLION BACKS
June 3rd, 2008 |
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 10)
All self-respecting nerds remember a time when Matt Groening’s Futurama was on the air for four glorious seasons from 1999 to 2003. Unfortunately, due to the supreme short-sightedness of Fox executives, it was canceled.
Thank goodness for basic cable syndication. After the show was shown in rerun on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, new life was breathed back into the series and fan support aided in the genesis of four direct-to-DVD movies that will be split into a sixteen-episode fifth season. The Beast With A Billion Backs is the second of those four DVDs and it will be released on June 24. This is an early review.
Coming off the previous direct-to-DVD movie – Bender’s Big Score – a scant few months ago, my anticipation was high for this second film. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite live up to it’s fantastic premise. Where as the first movie was generously sprinkled with references to the fan base that propelled a meticulously researched time-travel adventure, The Beast With A Billion Backs peters out somewhere in the third act and becomes almost… commonplace — Inexcusable in the vastly weird and unpredictable world of Futurama!
Having recently broken up with Colleen (voiced by Brittany Murphy) whose interpretation of love is somewhat untethered. Fry (voiced by Billy West) despondently throws himself into a recently emerging rift in the space time continium. There, he meets a horrific monster from another dimension who takes control of Fry’s body and crosses the threshold into our universe where he makes Fry the Pope of a new religion and forcibly takes control of every living being in the universe.
The film does a good job of setting an ominous tone as the monster invades Earth. A chase sequence with Leela, Amy and Zapp Brannagan is a great piece of choreographed action and the rapid-fire jokes and references never fail to miss the mark.
The movie begins to unravel, however, in the third act when it begins to change its tone. When the monster, introducing itself as Yivo (voiced by David Cross) reveals its true intentions, the movie changes gears from ominous and threatening to commonplace and terrestrial. There are still components of it that are weird in a Futurama way, but the underpinnings of the characters reactions are all based in trite relationship drama.
Additionally, the sub-plots involving Amy’s marriage to Kif and Bender’s take-over of a secret robot society feel almost unrelated to the movie. Bender’s sub-plot keeps him almost out of the movie entirely.
Perhaps turnabout is fair play since Bender was the complete focus of the first movie. And Futurama has a large stable of characters to draw from, so it’s difficult to incorporate them all evenly. I wouldn’t have a problem with Bender being relegated to the sidelines if his plot line were a little more in sync with the rest of the action. When there is off-planet action and Bender is still hanging out on Earth, it feels like a missed opportunity. Not until late in the third act do they rectify this.
Despite it’s problems, there are still plenty of laughs to be had in The Beast With A Billion Backs. All the hidden jokes and throw-away gags (like the St. Asimov’s Day Parade) are still there in full-force and I was laughing out loud several times. The voice acting is all top-notch and – truthfully – ANY Futurama is better than NO Futurama. So I would still encourage this as a purchase for anyone who is a fan of the series.
As for the extras, the cast and crew deliver another hilarious commentary track and there are a handful of deleted scenes and outtakes of the cast members flubbing their lines during recording.
A special “lost” episode is collected from the cut-scenes of the Futurama video game and stitched together with a few tweaks to hilarious effect. There are also a few behind-the-scenes featurettes like “Meet Yivo” – which is a few minutes in the recording booth with David Cross who ad-libs while obnoxiously eating popcorn and “A Brief History of Deathball” which reveals some of the concept art behind the newest future sport in the Futurama universe.
The Beast With A Billion Backs is worthwhile purchase for hard core fans. But at the end of the day, it just doesn’t hold up as well as its predecessor and doesn’t quite live up to the epic-ness of it’s title. Going in with reasonable expectations will probably enhance your enjoyment of the movie in the long run.
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On Sunday I read the news that there was a huge fire on the Universal Studios backlot and my heart sank. I was shaken by it; I don’t know why. And then I felt ashamed by it because it doesn’t seem like there is a year that goes by that huge wildfires rip through the state of Califorinia, decimating homes and leaving families with nothing… but the thought of a movie studio burning to the ground! *GASP!*… It just felt very selfish in comparison. Nevermind the other natural disasters that seem to be happening with greater and greater frequency all around the world. The earthquake in China — even the F5 tornadoes that recently hit here in Iowa. And I’m worried about a movie studo?
I seem to have lost my perspective. Have I bummed you out yet?
All the same, the events on Sunday (ignighted by workers using a blowtorch, incidentally) inspired this comic. So art is born again! Can you see The Circle of Life? I have a few other comics that will be posted in a short storyline, so I hope you appreciate them over the next few days. It’s not often one gets an excuse to do a Back to the Future parody, so I’m taking this flux capacitor and running with it.
I remember going to Universal Studios in Hollywood almost over 20 years ago – and in no way is that depressing. I believe I was 13 years old. My parents and I had gone to Arizona to visit relatives for Thanksgiving and then we hopped a flight to L.A. as part of an extended vacation.
I remember L.A. being very plastic and very fake. And this was during the early 90’s, pre-grunge. So everything was awash in bright neon green and pink. It was like some kind of Revlon candy land. It didn’t help that we were there over the weekend the Santa Ana winds blew into town. We didn’t know anything about it and were almost trapped outside of our hotel with sand and debris whipping down the street. They had locked up the glass doors in front to keep the vaccum of the high winds from blowing them out. We had to get inside through a service entrance. It was like our own mini disaster movie!
I’ve not had a strong desire to return to L.A. since, but if I *were* to go there, Universal Studios would be the main draw. We went there first-thing when we arrived in the city and I loved it.
Going to Universal Studios – Hollywood is a much more stratifying experience than going to the one in Florida or even MGM Studios (re: Disney Hollywood Studios) because it’s so much more authentic and so much less of a theme park experience (despite the theme park elements). We didn’t run into any filming productions when we were on the back lot tour, but several of the outdoor sets were immediately recognizable from other films. I remember when our tram turned the corner into Clocktower Square from Back to the Future and the spectacle of fantasy colliding with reality was almost too much for a young nerd to handle. It was so cool.
I feel kind of lame admitting it. I mean, I’ve since traveled the world and I’ve seen amazing, indelible, historical structures. But I speak with such effusive praise for a movie set? For a facade? I have no excuse for it. Seeing Clocktower Square from Back to the Future had as much impact on me as when I was standing 10 inches away from “Sunflowers” by Vincent Van Gogh at The National Gallery in London. I felt like I was face-to-face with history.
Kind of says a lot about the truncated American time line when a movie set from 30 years ago blows your mind.
That’s about all I have to say for today. Be sure to check back on Friday for the next installment of this Back to the Future mini-arc.
Have a great day!
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I got a lot of really good feedback from Wednesday’s Back to the Future twist, so I thought I would press on with the mini-arc that unfolded in front of my eyes after hearing about the Universal Studios backlot fire from last Sunday.
I was pretty confident that I was in safe waters making a Back to the Future reference. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love at least one of those movies.
It’s funny, though… Considering the current spoiler-drenched, I-have-a-LiveJournal-account-so-my-opinion-counts-more-than-yours culture the internet has spawned, I wonder how well the Back to the Future franchise would have fared with movie fans today.
As far as I can remember, they were one of the first franchises to film their second and third installments back-to-back. Something that the last two Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean movies did as well. I suppose you could say the same about the Lord of the Rings films, but they knew out of the gate there was too much story to film for one movie.
Would fans have been patient with the several paradoxes in the second movie? Would they appreciate the hard left turn the franchise takes when it skips into 1885 and the old west? Part of me thinks fans would not be as kind today… and that kind of depresses me.
I was thinking some more about the studio fire and how the Clocktower Square set had been damaged. Immiediately my mind went to business and I mocked up this t-shirt:
It’s nothing special. I doubt I would put it into production. Nevermind that Snorg Tees has one of their own – one that didn’t outright steal the design and layout from the flyer prop in the movie.
But it made me feel better to make it.
Now, if you want to talk REALLY geeky, check out what the fine folks at ThinkGeek.com have put together for you – Your OWN Flux Capacitor!
Only $249.99 – a giveaway!
Man, I seriously gotta watch these movies this weekend!
That’s about it for me. I’ll see you back here on Monday with more Back to the Future action!
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I realize that I’ve probably run my course with these Back to the Future comics. After all, there’s only so many times I can substitute a reference for a punchline. But I just had to bring things full circle after Friday’s comic. After all, who doesn’t want to see Doc Brown crash through a window? Now if only my Christopher Llyod caricature could have been better…
Cami and I saw You Don’t Mess With The Zohan yesterday afternoon and I had a pretty good time. I was surprised because Cami didn’t like the movie much. Typically she’s all over Adam Sandler films. But I think this one was too juvenile and weird even for her!
You have to expect a certain level of mental handicap when walking into an Adam Sandler movie, but I had a much better time with this one than most because I think Sandler really lets the thing run it’s course and he looks like he,himself is having fun for once.. He’s not reaching for THE BIG MESSAGE – which is weird, considering how the plot is primarilly centered around the conflict between Israel and Palistine.
Typically Sandler’s protagonists are about finding their way to maturity. Whether it’s the slacker who becomes a Dad in Big Daddy or the hectic family man who realizes what’s truly important in life in Click. But in this film, Sandler’s Israeli counter terrorist (an apparently super hero?) Zohan is a character who is TOO mature – a warrior who has seen too much and wants to escape all the fighting by becoming a hair dresser in America.
Considering just how complicated the conflict between Israel and Palistine has become, I thinkZohan does the right thing by making a complete mockery of it. Any attempt to frame it within a real world context would have fallen flat on it’s face. Although, in fairness, the movie tens to make the Palistinian side a little more ludicris than the Israeli side. In fact, any scene featuring Rob Schneider as a cab driver / wannabe terrorist is cringe-inducing in more than the typical Schneider-esque way. Some of it borders on complete cultural insensitivity.
But I don’t know if it’s fair to weighZohan in these terms. The film iscompletely stupid with no long term geo-political ramifications. Just… just go with it, will you? You’ll have more fun if you do.
If you saw Zohan over the weekend and want to talk about it, be sure to tune in LIVE to The Triple Feature podcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST over at TalkShoe. We’ll be talking about You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Kung Fu Panda and Sex and the City.
I know I promised we’d talk about Sex and the City last week (and we did, a little bit), but none of us had actually seen the movie. Well, I saw it last week and I know for a fact that Joe did as well. So we’ll have a little more to talk about this week. Be sure to tun in and listen to my anecdote about the parade of gay guys who joined us in the screening we took part in!
Also, we’ll probably take a little time to talk about The Incredible Hulk coming out this weekend. Personally, I wasn’t that amped up to see the movie until just the last week or so. Early reviews from press screenings are coming back strong. Some are saying it’s just as good as Iron Man. There’s even a rumored cameo from Captain America. Is this Marvel setting the stage for an Avengers movie down the road? It sure looks like it!
I’m psyched because I have a friend of a friend that has the hook-up at a local theater. He’s going to let us in for a special midnight screening on Thursday and I’m really looking forward to it.
Heck – even without all of that extra stuff, there’s still this to consider:
Geeks have known about the Iron Man cameo for months. It’s damn-near marketinggenius to confirm it in the television advertising. Watch out. This weekend will be all about HULK!! SMASH!!
Join us this evening on The Triple Feature podcast to discuss it. See you at 9:00 PM CST!
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I realize that today’s comic probably would have went better with yesterday’s blog post. Or at least the second half of that blog post where I discussed how Universal was giving away the cow with the milk by showing our man with the plan – Tony Stark – in the opening seconds of it’s latest round of television spots.
Oh, well. No time like the present, right?
I am amazed at the marketing blitz currently going on for The Incredible Hulk right now. Frankly, I’m worried that it’s too much. I can’t turn my head without running into a commercial for it and it feels like every commercial I see has some kind of new footage.
As I mentioned yesterday, early reviews are coming back strong. Some saying it’s just as good as Iron Man. I’m excited to see the movie, but skeptical. Oh, Ang Lee! Why did you have to mute my expectations with your bland 2003 interpretation?!
Actually, I’m sure that’s exactly the reason we’re seeing so much coverage in the days leading up to the film’s release. It’s basically the marketers saying “Look, we know you weren’t pleased with the first movie and a franchise reboot 5 years after the original does seem a little soon… but look! Iron Man is in it and there’s going to be a lot of punching and kicking! Holy crap! Did you just see Edward Norton’s shoulder pop out of his socket?! Cool, huh?”
My partner in crime Joe Dunn mentioned Monday night during our recording of The Triple Feature podcast that he thought it was a little bit of a bait-and-switch to show Iron Man in the commercials for The Incredible Hulk. His assertion is that Iron Man isn’t going toe-to-toe with ol’ Jade Jaws and the less educated members of the audience might feel cheated.
Personally, I tihnk that’s kind of a leap. I mean, if the trailers had Iron Man flying around in his armor, that would be one thing. But having Tony Stark show up in a suit to talk to Thunderbolt Ross over drinks doesn’t imply anything.
:: Please take a moment to go outside and get some air if you find the ambient geekiness overwhelming ::
Any way you slice it, I’m officially on board for this movie now and I’m really looking forward to the midnight test screening I get to go to tomorrow. (I have to keep mentioning that because it makes me special.)
I’m a little worried that I won’t be able to stay awake, though. Recently, I’ve started working out 6 times a week for the first time in over a year. I was doing pretty well taking care of myself in 2005 and 2006. But after Henry was born, I completely fell off the wagon and gained back all of the weight I lost. So I’m participating in an intense 10-week exercise program to get me back on track.
I work out every night at 7:30 and come home shuffling around like Frankenstein. Last night I struggled to finish the comic before going to bed around 12:30 am – and that’s typically early for me.
On Thursday, I have to get the comic done by 11:30 to be out the door in time for the test screening. Then I’ll be up, watching the movie until probably about 2:30 am before coming home, sleeping for 3 hours and getting up for work at 6:00. I haven’t been to a
midnight screening since Star Wars – Episode III and that nearly wrecked me.
The things I do for the movies.
That’s it for me! Have a great Wednesday, everyone!
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M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie The Happening is coming out today (Friday the 13th! Ooo! Spooky!) but you wouldn’t really know it since it’s staring down the green goliath known as The Incredible Hulk.
Where as Made of Honor might have been a clever bit of counter programming when Iron Man hit theaters in early May (to the tune of a $15 million opening weekend), I don’t know anyone who is all that conflicted about making The Happening their second choice in their weekend activities.
Personally, I’ve had it out for this movie since I heard the title of it. I mean, The Happening? You might as well call it “Something Happens” or “Plot Progession – The Movie.” The Happening? Can Shyamalan not predict the torrent of terrible headlines if this movie tanks – i.e. “The Happening – Isn’t.” Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!
A league of uninventive critics thanks you, Mr. Shyamalan.
There’s been a lot of talk about Shyamalan’s career being on the line with this movie. I don’t know if The Happening is really all that make-or-break for him, but he’s certainly not the wunderkind we all thought he was when The Sixth Sense came out almost a decade ago.
Morea and more, people are looking for the infamous Shyamalan twist ending. He’s painted himself into a corner with it, to a degree. Because if there isn’t some big awe-inspiring twist, people feel cheated. If there is a twist, audiences spend the whole time trying to spot it before the big reveal.
Personally, I think Shyamalan needs to step outside of himself and try adapting someone else’s material for a change. So far, all of his movies have been written by him. And don’t forget those clever cameos he give himself in every movie! I wouldn’t find it so narcissistic is Shyamalan didn’t believe his own hype. Famously, after the success of The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan declared himself the next Hitchcock with the visual flair of Spielberg. One could probably chalk a dunderheaded statement like that to youthful inexperience. Except he seems to be immune to the progressive decline of his film’s box office success. It’s not humbled him at all. Time to shake things up.
Incidentally, have you seen the commercials touting The Happening as Shyamalan’s FIRST “R” rated movie? As I illustrated in the comic, I have no idea why this is a selling point and they’ve really been pushing it hard. The red band trailer was certainly more graphic than I expected, but I don’t anticipate the film being a series of hangings, neck punctures and old men laying down in front of riding lawn mowers. If anything, that red band trailer is probably the “greatest hits” in the movie. The rest of it will be lingering shots of Mark Wahlberg looking confused.
Time will tell if The Happening will give Shyamalan’s career a lift. Early reviews appear encouraging. But for me, it’s a pass.
By the way, I went to a midnight showing of The Incredible Hulk last night. I didn’t get into bed until 2:30 in the morning and I’m dragging now. But as for the movie – it’s pretty good! I had read some reviews that said it was as good as Iron Man. I wouldn’t go that far. Iron Man had the good fortune of a bouncy and pithy Robert Downey Jr. so the dialogue had a lot more pop and swagger. There are LONG periods of time in The Incredible Hulk where no one says nuthin’!
Of course, if you are worried the movie will suck like the Ang Lee original, we’re in safe territory there. The movie features three great action sequences with the Hulk in full play and he shows up a lot earlier in this one than he does in the first movie. Director Louis Leterrier was smart to progressively show more and more of the Hulk and what he can do as the movie goes on.
The CG is good and the climatic battle at the end was expertly staged, but it felt like a cheat to have it take place at night. It obscured some of the action. Jeffery Wells had a good line about that last sequence although he called the fight “boring.” Said Wells, “Heavy-duty fights between powerful monsters are completely boring unless one of the combatants has some kind of advantage over the other. It’s like watching a battle of bad heavy-metal bands.”
But I happen to know that some people really, really like bad heavy metal bands. And if you do, you’re going to LOVE The Incredible Hulk.
That about does it for me. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you here on Monday!
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The Incredible Hulk came out this weekend and, for the most part, people seemed to enjoy it. At least to the tune of $55 million – which is less than the $62 million Ang Lee’s Hulk took in for it’s opening weekend 5 years ago. But considering how quickly that film dropped off in it’s second week, I think The Increidble Hulk will have legs by comparison.
If nothing else, it already has respect. I’ve received e-mails and comments from a few people who thought the Ang Lee film was better, which I can understand. The characterization and backstory is much more nuanced in that film and a little bit more satisfying from that stand point.
That said, I don’t share that perspective.
I always felt – as I suspect most Hulk fans feel – that if there was ANY property tailor made for the kind of high-level, mindless Michael Bay destruct-o-thon, it is the Hulk. And in that respect Louis Leterrier’s Incredible Hulk does not dissapoint.
I enjoyed this movie a lot. I thought Edward Norton was a much more believable Bruce Banner than Eric Bana. I always thought Bana was much too beefy for the role. Norton easily brings that reedy braniac quality to things by default. William Hurt was a little over the top, but enjoyable, as General Thunderbolt Ross and Liv Tyler as Betty Ross barely registered. Any excuse to put Tim Roth into a movie I’ll sign on for, but he looked a little out of place as Emil Blonsky and I thought he was a little transparent in his portrayal of Blonsky as an out of control junkie, but whatever. Admit that you’re not watching these movies for the performances. You want to see the Hulk break stuff!
The good news is that unlike Ang Lee’s film, the Hulk shows up early. But Leterrier doesn’t give everything up right away. He keeps the Hulk in shadows and fog. You don’t see him directly, but you see what his power is capable of and that’s almost as scary.
A second confrontation with the Hulk on a college campus is much more furious and terrifying as the army brings wave after wave of weapons to trying and subdue him. The sonic cannons I thought were particularly inventive and visually interesting.
By the third act when Blonsky is turned into the semi-nude four ton exoskeleton with attitude – The Abomination – the gloves are off. Well, except for the police car the Hulk tears in half and makes boxing gloves out of. A fantastic nod to the videogame Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.
As savage and exciting as the final battle is, it’s not quite as satisfying as the fight on the college campus. It’s fun to watch the Hulk cut loose, but he’s pretty much evenly matched, so it’s like a couple of gorillas beating on each other with no real conseqences.
I’m also not impressed that they chose to stage the fight at night because Leterrier could hide a lot of the action in shadows and it became a little frustrating to watch. Some oddly placed camera angles too close to the action and it gets to be a little too much to handle. The immediate comparison I made was to the battle sequences in last year’s Transformers, which ended up playing out much better on the small screen when the movie was released to DVD. Let’s hope the same holds true here.
These are nit-picky complaints. I would never suggest to anyone that they skip this movie. Go see it. You’ll have a blast. If you’re already a fan of the Hulk (or a comic book geek in general), you love all the little nods and references to past iterations of the character and the Marvel universe as a whole. You can tell that Marvel has taken great care to create a sense of an overlapping universe, similar to what you experience in the comics.
And because I’m sure you’re curious about my take on the matter… there’s the BIG CAMEO from Robert Downey Jr. at the end of the film as Tony Stark. Did I like it? Well, yeah. It’s friggin’ Iron Man, people! But I almost wonder if it would have be better as an extra scene after the credits. As it is, it feels a little tacked on. Banner makes his escape into the Canadian wilderness, meditates and tries to control the Hulk. His eyes flash green and a smile crosses his face. The movie should have ended there. It was a perfect punctuation mark to the film.
But immediately after, we’re taken to a bar where Thunderbolt Ross is pounding down drinks before Tony Stark walks in and hints at a team they’re “putting together.” I think people would have geeked out more if the scene were shown after the credits. Instead, the movie ends and people asked “What’s next?” A lot of them – myself included – stuck around after the credit to see if there would be another sequence. There wasn’t one. So that’s my tip to you – “DON’T stick around after the credits.”
As far as the comic is concerned, I’ve read a lot of online chatter about the merits of The Incredible Hulk versus Iron Man and I think it’s pointless. And not just because I’m heavily biased.
I don’t understand the purpose of comparing one comic book movie to another. I mean, I do – because that’s what comic book geeks do. But you never see this anywhere else in film. People don’t do this with dramas or comedies or any other genre. You don’t read pages and pages of debate weighing whether No Country For Old Men is better than Sweeny Todd, y’know?
Oh, well. It is what it is.
Be sure to tune in to The Triple Feature tonight at 9:00 PM CST where we will be sure to talk about The Incredible Hulk as well as M. Knight Shyamalan’s The Happening. If you want to contribute your two cents, be sure to call in LIVE
See you then!
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I hate to give you guys extra homework on a Wednesday, but you might get a little more enjoyment out of today’s comic if you read this one first.
It’s kind of funny how these things loop around. I have to chuckle a little bit because of how near prescient that comic from 2003 actually was. I tossed out 2007 from nowhere when I suggested Mike Myers self-plagiarism would cause his head to collapse. Who would have guessed that after the critical failure that was The Cat in the Hat he would go into exile away from movie screens for the next five years?
I like Myers, but you would have to be a poor student of comedy not to notice that he really only has four or five moves. Fortunately for him, he has an uncanny ability to insert catch phrases into the lexicon and that’s what gives his movies legs. Even one or two word catch phrases. Who could imagine that “…Not!” could become a catch phrase? Well, maybe Borat could. But no one else. Innocuous phrases like “Schwing” or “Yeah, baby” reflect that it’s not just the words themselves, but the way Myers says them that make them lodge in our brain. I give him a lot of credit for that.
But when I saw the trailer for The Love Guru, I rolled my eyes in disgust.
Undoubtedly, Myers creation of The Guru Pitka is an original one. Something we really haven’t seen in a movie before. But everything that surround him, we have. He bends his legs over his head like the Austin Powers villain Goldmember, he rides around on a motorized pillow reminiscent of Dr. Evil and his various troublesome chairs, he unleashes a stream of Freudian slips when he encounters Verne Troyer (“How do you do? Shrimp?” “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your gnome… name!” “You are a midget”) similar to Austin Powers meeting Fred Savage’s Number Three character in Goldmember. You know – the one with the mole? (“Moley, moley, moley!”) There is an Austin Powers-esque dance number and The Guru Pitka has unfortunate body hair like Powers as well – there’s another trailer showing him showering with long nipple hair that comes to a point like his beard.
That said, I do give him credit for the line he delivers when confronted by the cowboy in the bar. “Nice hat. I had a hat like that once. Then my Mom got a job!” That’s a good one.
It may seem nit-picky to point out these comparisons between The Love Guru and the Austin Powers movie, but it’s not a good sign when you’re watching a trailer and you keep saying to yourself “I think I’ve seen that joke in a movie before.” over and over and over again. I was initially excited for The Love Guru. The first trailer diminished that. Bad sign.
I was trying to think of a reason why I’m tagging Myers for self-plagiarism in this way. Certainly there are many other comedians who perform the same character or hit the same emotional notes from picture to picture. Fellow Saturday Night Live alum Adam Sandler, for example, could be considered on of them.
But for me it all came into focus after Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. There are jokes in that movie that could be considered outright theft from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery if it wasn’t Myers who wrote both movies. It’s one thing to have a running gag in a series of films. It develops a sense of continuity. It’s a completely different thing to tell the exact same joke twice.
Entertainment Weekly had a very interesting article about Myers that was posted on Monday. It’s a little on the long side, but I suggest you read it. The article delves into Myers exacting and demanding creative process and tackles his reputation as someone who is difficult to work with.
The article actually made me appreciate Myers again because – despite his negative reputation – it’s clear that he cares very deeply for his work and I admire anyone with that kind of discipline. Most people who are perfectionists in this way aren’t well-liked. But their contribution to the culture at large is usually profound. Myers takes being stupid very seriously. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny what his movies do for people. Critical observations aside, myself included. Even when I know Myers is trying to float the same joke twice, I laugh – because there is conviction behind it.
That said, did anyone see Myers on Late Night with David Letterman on Monday. Both Cami and I thought that he was struggling exceptionally hard to put on a front that was the antithesis to what the EW article portrayed him to be. Here are the two parts of his interview in cased you missed it.
I’ll probably end up seeing The Love Guru at some point this weekend. Cami is a long-in-the-tooth Myers fan and is extremely motivated to see it – despite what I think is worthy competition from Steve Carell and Get Smart.
We’ll go to the movie and I’ll laugh before immediately quoting lines from the movie – all the while kind of hating myself for it while I do. But at the same time I’ll be eagerly anticipating the DVD release of the film because that’s exactly the kind of hold Mike Myers has over my household and the culture at large.
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In my estimation, if you’re a child of the 80’s and a huge nerd, there are two de facto references from science fiction films that are fun to drop randomly into conversation… usually.
The first is Terrance Stamp’s commanding delivery instructing Superman (and pretty much the rest of the world) what he expects them to do in Superman II.
The second is this.
Kind of funny how they both come from the vastly superior sequels of original franchise movies?
Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with Get Smart except for the fact that Terrance Stamp plays the main bad guy. And if Terrance Stamp is your main bad guy, it’s only a matter of time before someone mentions Zod. It’s like the pop culture equivalent to Godwin’s Law or something – "Stamp’s Law?"
As far as Get Smart is concerned, I suppose it doesn’t bod well for it’s likelyhood of me seeing it that I’ve spent this much time cross referencing it with Superman II. I’d like to see it. I think it looks like fun. And I am generally impressed with the cast. Adding Alan Arkin to any movie immediately ups its cred, in my opinion. Although, didn’t this guy just win an Oscar? What’s up with Oscar winners turning around and taking the next biggest studio-backed picture they can find?
I also find it interesting that Get Smart is going up against The Love Guru this weekend. Even though The Love Guru is taking a drubbing from critics, Get Smart is being taken to task for trying to mine laughs from the spy genre – something that Mike Myers pretty much exhausted with the Austin Powers films.
So, if you think about it, this is really a Battle of the Leftovers – Get Smart reheating what’s left of the spy parody genre versus Mike Meyers plaigarising himself into nothingness.
That said, Cami and I are still on a collision course to see The Love Guru this weekend. Partially out of morbid curiosity by also because we’re in complete denial that it could ever be that bad. I guess it shows that despite Myers’ difficult reputation, he still has some good will and credibility built up with his fans.
We’ll have to see if The Love Guru dashes it to bits or not.
SWITCHING GEARS
Real quick, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be appearing at Wizard World Chicago next week, Thursday, June 26 through Sunday, June 29. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be sitting in Artist’s Alley at table #4308. Here is a map of the convetion floor. I’m pretty much smack in the middle of Arist’s Alley, which I’m excited about.
I’m also excited because my table will be situated next to my good friends from Digital Pimp Online – Joe Dunn, Phil Chan, Rich Dinan, Irvsher Fabor and Joe Walerko. They’re great guys and I look forward to seeing them every year.
ANOTHER reason I’m excited is because I found out who is sitting two tables down from us. It won’t impress you, but it has me psyched up. ADI GRANOV!
In case you don’t know who Granov is, he’s an amazing digital illustrator who worked on the relaunch of Iron Man with Warren Ellis a few years back and has generally been doing a lot of work on comic book covers recently.
More importantly, this is the guy who has pretty much set the tone for how Iron Man is interpreted visually through multiple mediums. He redesigned the armor during his run with Ellis. He was also hired by Jon Favreau to be an consultant on the armor design for the Iron Man movie. So, if you’ve seen Iron Man, you’ve seen Granov’s work. He’s an amazing talent and I can’t wait to meet him! I’ll try to get pictures.
Anyway, I also wanted to let you know that in addition to the books and t-shirts we sell on the site, I’ll also be selling two new items.
The first will be a custom sketch that I will draw OF YOU as your favorite movie character! I printed up some sketch cards with the Theater Hopper logo and URL and they look pretty sweet. It’ll be a nice, customized takeaway for fans of the strip.
Second is a sampler booklet that collects the collects the 25 most popular Theater Hopper strips – the one’s you voted on, remember? Brief commentary for each of the strips is also provided.
There will be an extra incentive for convention attendees to pick up this sampler booklet, because printed in the back is a coupon for $3.00 off one of the Theater Hopper books! Pretty cool, huh?
Don’t worry – I plan on offering both the sketch cards AND the booklets online after the convention so you guys get to see what all the fuss is about.
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